A cancer test simulation became a reality for one unfortunate med student.

Gabriella Barboza, 22, was horrified after discovering that she had neck cancer during a lesson on — wait for it — diagnosing cancerous growths.

“When I found out, my world collapsed,” Barboza told Newsflash of the cruelly ironic incident, which occurred at an undisclosed medical school in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2020.

The third-year medical student recounted how she had been called upon by her teacher, Dr. Daniel Lichtenthaler, to demonstrate the proper method of examining patients for neck tumors.

However, during the simulated inspection, the professor discovered some actual cancer symptoms, whereupon the worried educator told Barboza to get checked out after class.

The unfortunately apt pupil sought confirmation — and received the earth-shattering news: Barboza had a form of thyroid cancer called papillary thyroid carcinoma, also known as PTC.

PTC is the most common type of thyroid cancer, affecting around 200,000 Americans each year, mostly between the ages of 30 and 50, and more commonly seen in women than men, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Comprising 80% of all thyroid cancer cases, PTC is also the most prevalent cancer in women younger than 25, according to research conducted by the Columbia Thyroid Center in NYC.

Barboza said she was devastated by the diagnosis: “I kept thinking: ‘I’m too young to face this.’ I cried a lot and didn’t want to believe it. It’s a moment when you see things can end.”

Barboza initially exhibited no signs of PTC, but by the time she was diagnosed, the insidious ailment had metastasized to other parts of her neck, including her esophagus.

Nonetheless, Barboza is grateful that her teacher caught the cancer when he did. “I think if I hadn’t gone that day, maybe I wouldn’t have discovered the disease so soon, my diagnosis would have taken much longer and it could have been more serious,” she said.

Often, “well-differentiated tumors [associated with PTC] can be treated and can usually be cured,” the National Cancer Institute has reported. Due to PTC’s high recovery rate, doctors were confident that Barboza could beat the disease.

The courageous patient underwent the first stage of treatment in November 2020 in São Paulo, where surgeons removed her thyroid along with the outlying neck tumors.

They followed it up in January 2020 by administering iodine therapy — in which doctors use radioactive isotopes to kill any remaining cancer cells.

Following the treatment, Barboza was deemed cured of cancer in 2021, and now undergoes biannual checkups to ensure that there’s no recurrence.

The jubilant survivor took to the internet to celebrate the good news. “After months of struggle, I want to record this remarkable moment in my life, which has made me a better person and has made me see the world in a different way,” Barboza gushed online. “I always wanted to be a doctor to take care of others and heal people, regardless of speciality. But after what I went through as a patient, I think my perspective has changed.”

Professor Lichtenthaler, who initially couldn’t believe she had cancer, was similarly overjoyed at his student’s recovery, exclaiming: “Once I learned the treatment had been successful, I was very happy.”

In a similarly life-changing incident earlier this month, a UK university student was diagnosed with “booze-induced heartburn” — only to learn much later that she had a rare, incurable cancer.